I’ve just read Rivers of London by Ben Aaronovitch, and thought it was a decently enjoyable read if not ground breaking. My two favourite genres are fantasy and crime and so most competently written books in either genre are generally non-offensive to me.
In my usual post-read ritual of reviewing Goodreads and the wider web for other opinions, I was surprised at the backlash regarding the sexist and misogynistic elements of the book. Plenty of reviewers had harshly penalised the book on this element alone.
However I concede that whilst reading I found the descriptions that were sexual in nature were a little more forward than I would expect in a book written in 2011. I also thought the protagonists narration was indeed a bit sexist.
I suppose the question for me is how appropriate is that for the character? I am not a fan of gratuitous sexualisation in books (either way and all those in between) but as the protagonist is a single hetro man in his late 20s is it reasonable to expect a degree of objectification of the opposite sex? It is also worth noting that the character has some relatively misogynistic thoughts, but the characters actions are principally respectful.
I am interested in other perspectives, if not from Rivers of London other series with similar themes.
EDIT: I am very confused why this has been so aggressively downvoted… does anyone care to explain?
EDIT2: I am none the wiser. As far as I can guess some people think I’m anti women and some people think I’m anti men and so both are downvoting me. Reddit has become a very hostile environment for anyone wanting to have a discussion.
by ollie1roddy